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Month: September 2014
DO Cava – The Empire Strikes Back!
CAVA – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!
THE CONSEJO REGULADOR DO CAVA AWAITS GOVERNMENTAL APPROVAL OF A NEW DESIGNATION
Denominación de Origen Cava has endured some brutal bashing over the last couple of years. Concerns about quality were foremost of the critical comments made about this, one of the previously most respected DOs in Spain. Some high profile producers threatened to leave the DO and then did so, making a correspondingly big noise on the way.
The press, including your correspondent, got hold of the story (they could hardly not do so, as the Cava Refuseniks made sure that we were kept informed) and suddenly, from nowhere, Cava was a DO under siege. Other Spanish producers of Sparkling Wines rubbed their hands with glee as their sales increased whilst those of Cava stagnated and then started to fall. Like the country itself, DO Cava was embroiled in La Crisis, but on a second front.
Well, it’s high time to be more even-handed when discussing DO Cava, as indeed was Señor Pere Bonet, President of the Consejo Regulador DO Cava, when I met him recently, having been invited to Cataluña to interview him, and to see for myself, how the Cava Empire is striking back!
President Consejo Regulador DO Cava, Señor Pere Bonetand Geneal Secretary Señora Maria Eugenia Puig Amat
Having worked in Champagne as well as with Freixenet, the world’s largest producer of Sparkling Wine, Señor Bonet is an expert in the field. Ally this knowledge and experience to his training and expertise in the world of Marketing and it’s clear that his recent appointment was inspired. Apart from his skills and experience, Señor Bonet is also a gentleman and I’m not surprised that he has been charged with steering the right course through the choppy seas of, often unfair, criticism.
He too, is even-handed. He is aware that the image of Cava has been damaged, by the criticism of once fellow producers who have now abandoned ship; but he also knows that there is more, cheap Cava sold, than quality. It’s the under two Euro Cava that is constantly being highlighted, but this Cava, whilst obeying all the rules, is not at all representative of DO Cava, Per Se. It’s time to redress the balance.
When asked about the lack of quality at the basic, entry level of Cava and its impact on consumers’ perception of the drink, Sr. Bonet said that it was surely the same for any DO. I agree.
Take, for example, DO Rueda – since their phenomenal rise to power (one in three bottles of wine sold in Spain is from this DO!) they haven’t looked back, but they need to!
Again, at the basic entry level there is plenty of dross being sold, quite legally correctly as DO Rueda, and at the same price level above, below two Euros. Do people make a big deal of it? No! Do producers of the best Rueda wines threaten to leave the DO because of the influx of those who want to jump on the bandwagon? No! Does the Press set up another witch-hunt? No!
As I’ve always said – up to a point, you get what you pay for, here in Spain. A wine or Cava that sells for 1·49€ is always going to deliver exactly that sort of value! Practically none! So let’s leave DO Cava alone. Live and let live – those who want to make their cavas at this base level can do so; those who want to buy them can also do so, but please, don’t be confused, these are nothing like Cava is meant to be.
However, Sr. Bonet, who is only in his second year as President, and his colleagues on the Consejo Regulador DO Cava are not content with highlighting just this. He is listening to criticism and he and his colleagues have come up with an effective riposte and it’s being done, correctly, diplomatically, tactfully and subtly too. “Our intention is to ‘re-dignify’ the name Cava”, said Pere Bonet, as he explained what’s afoot.
Firstly I was extremely impressed with the quality control that has been instituted recently. It’s all high tech with growers having cards (like credit cards) which are swiped with all the details of varieties, location, sugar content etc of the grapes they have brought to the reception areas; and bodegas have state-of-the-art tablets, both of which record and send automatically all the information to the Consejo Regulador. I saw the whole process – it’s fascinating and all designed to make DO Cava’s quality control transparent.
Also when I was at Bodegas Segura Viudas (watch this space for a report on my fantastic visit) I witnessed one of the DO Cava Consejo Regulador’s ‘secret shoppers’ collating all this information whilst inspecting the whole process. Good to know that there’s still a place for humans with a humble pen and paper, too! Such ‘agents’ are sent to bodegas on surprise (within health and safety boundaries) visits, again with a view to making sure that all is correct.
Secondly, and this is the absolute latest, an application has been made to the Spanish Government to change the regulations of the DO Cava! It’s the Ministry of Agriculture that has the say in all Denominación de Origen matters in Spain – it is they who do, or don’t, grant DO status, in this case to Cava, but also to wine, cheese etc. So in order to make any changes to that which has been previously approved by the Ministry (and therefore the Government) an extra application has to me made.
The Consejo Regulador DO Cava has applied to add a further designation to the DO. If approved (the answer is expected before the end of this year) and it’s looking hopeful, it will surely make a difference to how the press and consumers will view Cava. Once approval has been achieved (thinking positively) the general ideas already mooted will be discussed in earnest and a list of rules and regulations will be drawn up and then, probably in 2015, put into operation.
The new designation will be Cava de Paraje Calificado, which means that it is Cava that has been made in a specific place. It may be, for example, from one particular vineyard within all the rest owned/run by a bodega; or it may be several vineyards within the land used by the bodega; and indeed it may be all their vineyards. It will all depend on satisfying the rules – if these bodegas/vineyards qualify, they will be given permission to use the new designation. And, obviously, Cavas made under this new designation will be top quality!
But what are the rules? I hear you demanding! Well, whilst there are suggestions being bandied about, there cannot be any definitive answer to this as they do not yet have permission from the Ministry to go ahead. However, I can tell you just a few of the matters being debated.
The age of the vines growing in the vineyards in question will probably be a factor. So too will be the maximum kilos produced per hectare. Also the length of time the sparkling wine spends ‘en rima’, resting in bottle with its yeast after the second fermentation.
But that’s all that can be revealed at this moment in time! However, I now have a direct source from whom I’ll receive updates as time passes and you can be sure that it will be Cork Talk readers whom I tell first!
Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com and though his unique website www.colinharknessonwine.com and also via Twitter @colinonwine
GOLD OUTSTANDING!
THE IWSC’S TOP AWARD GOES TO SIX SPANISH WINES!
(PART TWO)
This week’s Cork Talk is the concluding half of a short two part series featuring the best Spanish wines entered in the International Wine and Spirits Competition 2014.
This year the Spanish Panel of the IWSC awarded six of these medals of honour! It was fascinating for me to hear that three of these truly excellent wines were in fact Sherries; two were Riojas; and one was a sparkling wine – not Cava, though, a wine about which I have written in this column. A sparkling wine from DO Rías Baixas, and the subject of last week’s article!
So Spain’s old guard stands firm, but a new kid on the block makes its mark too, and maybe opens doors for other enterprising young winemakers to challenge tradition and in so doing up the ante in terms of the quality of Spanish wines. How lucky we are to live here at such a dynamic wine-time!
Cork Talk, this week is about the remaining five of these demonstrably six excellent wines.
As mentioned last week, DO La Rioja has been going through a period of significant change. Traditional wines have had to move over to allow more modern styles some shelf space. These newer, Vino d’Autor, wines shouldn’t be seen as usurpers, there’s room enough for both types. And it’s we consumers who are benefiting – the challenge of the contemporary wines has caused a shake-up in any bodegas that were sitting on their laurels.
El Meson Rioja Gran Reserva 2004 from Bodegas El Coto, part of the Grupo Baron de Ley empire, is copybook Rioja Gran Reserva. Combining presence with subtlety, power with sensuality, the taster is seduced from the moment the cork is pulled. There’s a note of sweet light red fruit with a raison undercurrent as well as a hint of darker bramble fruit too.
It’s a fully rounded, delightful wine that should be served deferentially at dinner when there is time to savour the flavour and discuss the complexity. Still alive, with and matured tannins and the necessary acidity, it is slowly ageing, but oh so gracefully!
Also from Rioja’s hallowed Gran Reserva range comes Bodegas Ramon Bilbao’s Gran Reserva 2006 – but it’s a wholly different animal! To qualify for Gran Reserva status a wine has to have undergone a minimum of two years in oak and a further three in bottle before it can be legally released onto the market. In reality though, this time in the quiet dark of the bodega’s cellars is often longer than the prescribed minimum.
It is of course the responsibility of the Head Winemaker to decide when the wine should be brought into the light, taking into account the vintage from whence the wine came and, of course, its development over time. It’s clear to me that this slightly younger wine than the above is now at its height in terms of sheer pleasure, and indeed it has some years left to develop further and give perhaps even more.
In the glass it’s brick red giving a clue as to its age. On the nose you’ll find tantalising earthy soft red fruit aromas – sniff out loganberry and raspberry with perhaps some not quite ripe strawberry acidity to keep the wine fresh! You’ll also find some herbs, understated rosemary, slightly more prominent thyme underpinned with enveloping bay leaf and some smoky oak.
But it’s on the palate where the wine really excels (as if the above wasn’t quite enough!) it’s delicate and yet full with lasting fruit flavours kept alive by a refreshing acidic lick and a long, long finish. Wow, I loved this wine!
Sherry. What does it mean to you? (Watch this space in the weeks to come and you’ll be able to learn a little more about sherry and some interesting and very tasty developments in Spain’s oldest wine making region.). Well, if it means your Grandmother’s Christmas tipple – please, think again. Jerez, the correct name, has also been, and continues to go, through a period of change. Jerez is being sexed up – and I’m all in favour!
It’s not surprising, therefore, to see that the remaining three IWSC Gold Outstanding medals were all given to the fortified wines of Jerez!
Manzanilla is a style of Sherry that I particularly enjoy. Almost water coloured it’s as fresh as sea-spray and it has that slightly salty flavour too. As such it makes just about the best aperitif there is! Sip it with pan-fried, lightly salted almonds, Manchego curado and finely sliced jamon Serrano – delicious.
Bodegas Williams and Humbert make Marks and Spencer’s Manzanilla and it’s this wine that, having won Silver at the IWSC last year, has stepped up to the top rung of the quality ladder.
Now, according to what one reads and hears on the news, M&S aren’t doing anything like as well as they were when, for example, I left the UK nearly twenty years ago. However, this isn’t the case with the drinks arm of their business.
Year on year M&S’ wine selections and indeed their ‘own brand’ wines are given medals and plaudits. This Manzanilla is one of the reasons why! It’s complex and intense whilst retaining a youthful exuberance. Restaurants must love it as it brings an almost immediate desire to eat something! Use it thus, as suggested, with aperitifs but also think about drinking this sherry with fish dishes as well. Salty with a touch of spice – spend just 6·99 pounds(!) and buy it when you next go to the UK!
Amontillado is often thought of as a slightly sweet sherry – it’s been made that way for the British market for years, allegedly to satisfy the British sweet tooth! However, in its natural state this full, orange/brown coloured sherry is dry, and much the better for it. Again we’ll go to the cellars of Williams and Humbert for our next winner. That’s two Gold Outstandings from the same stable – I’ll bet there’s been some toasting going on there since the results were announced!
Williams and Humbert’s Colección 12 Yrs Old is a deeply flavoured, full bodied sherry that is pure pleasure to sip on its own. Mature, complex and intense it still manages to be elegant in its power. It’s tangy with a nuttiness that makes you long for almonds and walnuts, strong cheeses, a selection of cold meats and even with seafood too.
Finally the last IWSC Gold Outstanding medal was awarded to a venerable sherry, one that has seen off a minimum of thirty harvests and yet is as bright as they come. It’s a different style, a Palo Cortado – a rare wine that magically changed course when it was developing as a Fino or an Amontillado (sometime early 80s!!), taking on a deep tan and developing a very slightly medium sweet nuance, though sweet, it’s not, nor medium!
There are some dried fruits on the nose of Harvey’s Very Old Palo Cortado, mature raisons soaked in brandy too. It’s nutty, pecan nuts with hazelnuts and a ripe fullness, with an intense depth and subtle layers of flavours as you descend ever more deeply into its welcome. I enjoyed it with mixed nuts and raisons, a digestive too, but also with good quality jamón a both hard and creamy strong sheeses– it’s adaptable, and it’s also perfectly happy to be savoured on its own!
As it’s Harvey’s it’s also available in the UK, though it comes from a limited production – so snap it up, as soon as you see it!
Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com and though his wine services website, www.colinharknessonwine.com as well as via Twitter @colinonwine
IWSC Awards 6 Gold Outstanding Medals to Spain
THE 2014 IWSC’S BEST SPANISH WINES!
SIX WINES AWARDED HIGHEST MEDAL: GOLD OUTSTANDING!
Over the last ten years there has been an unfortunate proliferation of wine competitions, in my opinion. In the UK there’s scarcely a bottle on the shelves which doesn’t proclaim some sort of ‘gong’ won in some, not always prestigious, wine competition or other.
In an attempt to promote wine sales, of which I’m all in favour of course, such endeavours have in fact caused, at best, confusion or, at worst, apathy! How does the consumer know which medal actually matters, in terms of the quality of the wine they are about to purchase? Which competition is the more meaningful? Is a Bronze in one competition the equivalent of a Gold Star in another; or is there simply no comparison? And worst of all: is it possible to ‘buy’ a medal – does a huge advert in the competition’s literature, or a significant donation, ensure a Gold?
Well, in an effort to clear the mist surrounding the podium (and indeed the steps rising towards this pantheon), in my opinion (and that of many other commentators, I should add) there are three, international competitions that count, that really are prestigious. One of them is the International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC), for whom I judge and for whom I act as Agent for Spain. So, nailing my colours to the barrel, I admit a vatted interest – but not, as far as I can make it so, any bias.
One of the prerequisites for judging wines has to be total objectivity. I like to think I maintain the same level of impartiality when talking about wine competitions as I do when judging wines for the IWSC. So, in the interests of transparency I’ve declared my interest and will also mention, albeit briefly, the other two ‘biggies’ – the International Wine Challenge; and the Decanter World Wine Awards – Boo! Sorry, couldn’t resist it!
I know, from my own experiences, that when a Gold is given there is a great feeling in the judging salon of the IWSC. Golds are hard to achieve, we are notoriously tight and marking is stringent, so when a wine achieves the necessary number of points, there is a real sense of pleasure. After all, we may be serious judges, but don’t forget that we all love wine!
Occasionally there is a feeling in the room that to simply give a Gold isn’t quite enough! Gold is presented when a wine finds a place within the 90 – 100 points bracket, which is praise indeed. However, once in a while, a wine that sits at the top of that bracket, in some way deserves more. These are the wines that, in Orwellian terms, are more equal than other Golds – these are the Gold Outstanding wines!
This year the Spanish Panel of the IWSC awarded six of these medals of honour! It was fascinating for me to hear that three of these truly excellent wines were in fact Sherries; two were Riojas; and one was a sparkling wine – not Cava, though, a wine about which I have written in this column. A sparkling wine from DO Rías Baixas!
So, Cork Talk, this week, and next, is about these demonstrably six excellent wines, as I was kindly sent a sample of each by the proud winning bodegas.
Bodegas Coto Redondo makes sensational sparkling wine. I wrote about the good fortune of the sparkling wine makers of Galicia when the Consejo Regulador of DO Rías Baixas coincidentally announced that they had decided to permit Vinos Espumosos to carry the DO logo, at the same time as the spotlight was falling on alternative Spanish sparklers because of the internal strife at DO Cava.
Right place, right time – and didn’t Señorio de Rubios take advantage! Their IWSC Gold Outstanding Señorio do Rubiós Condada do Tea Blanco Brut Nature is one of the best sparkling wines I’ve ever tasted, and that includes Champagnes as well as top of the range Cavas!
Made with the wonderful super-aromatic varieties: Treìxadura, Loureiro, Albariño and Torrontés, this wine has an unforgettable fragrance, as one would expect, of peach, white flowers and apricot along with the usual yeasty panaderia notes of brioche, pastries and warm bread that is often associated with sparkling wine.
Whilst elegant and graceful on the palate, there’s also a tantalising, almost sexy seductiveness that would entice Galician sailors just as well as any Mermaid! It has a super backbone of flavour too, with a long finish. They have a great range of still wines as well – a bodega to look out for: www.bodegas-cotoredondo.com.
Everybody all over the World who knows about wine, knows about Rioja. Fact. It is Spain’s most recognised brand and has consistently been fashioning some of the greatest Spanish wines ever produced. It still does so, as this medium sized area of production has been awarded not one, but two IWSC Gold Outstanding medals!
Times are changing in Rioja, there has been a metamorphosis, which in my opinion has been for the greater good, and some! There is more quality control than has been in the past and a new modern style Rioja jostles with traditional wines, resulting in a crucial competitiveness which keeps them all on their toes.
Historically it has been: Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva wines that have made Rioja famous and to a lesser extent, Cosecha wines, which have seen either no oak ageing, or very little. Modernist winemakers in Rioja are now making wines that rally under a sort of banner (though there’s no rigid definition) known as Vinos D’Autor.
These are wines that don’t wholly subscribe to tradition, though they do keep within the rules and regulations boundaries. Wines that may have had, for example thirteen months in oak and a year in bottle, which would qualify them for Crianza status, but which do not carry the ‘Crianza’ logo, for fear of being stereotyped. They are a product of the winemakers passion, philosophy and imagination. Look out for them.
However don’t forgo traditional Rioja wines – the two IWSC Gold Outstanding Rioja wines are Gran Reservas!
More on these two wonderful wines, plus the Gold Outstanding Sherries next week!
Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com and through www.colinharknessonwine.com and via Twitter @colinonwine